Thirty people in distress on a small boat in Malta’s search and rescue (SAR) zone were intercepted by a vessel belonging to the Libyan Tarek Ben Zayed militia group on Monday in another pushback, which humanitarian NGO AlarmPhone says was aided by the Maltese government. 🆘~30 people in distress in the SAR zone of #MaltaWe were called by 30 people in distress who had fled from #Sirte, #Libya 2 days ago. On Friday, the commercial vessel Nippon Princess heeded the distress call and looked for the smaller boat but could not find it. By Monday, AlarmPhone confirmed the pushback by the Libyan TBZ vessel and “condemned Malta’s role in pushbacks.”Last July, 250 people in distress on a small boat in Malta’s SAR zone were intercepted by the same vessel and pushed back to Libya. In May, a group of four humanitarian NGOs, which included Alarm Phone and Sea Watch, accused Malta of coordinating another “criminal mass pushback” of 500 migrants to prison in Libya straight from Malta’s own SAR.
